Emergence of Anarchy

New York Times, on Sunday, November 8, had an article on sentences addressed by

a Federal judge to three members of the antigovernment Montana Freemen for conspiracy

and fraud; the article stirred my memory and concern about this paper, as well as brought

into play many of the dilemmas discussed in the Nature of Politics class. However, I do

not wish to analyze this particular article or cult, but the emergence of anarchy.

There have been theories and diagnosis of human nature: the Aristotelian, teleo-

logical view of the political animal, the Platonic, metaphorical view of the chained

caveman, the Hobbian, phobic view of savage life as inevitably ‘short’, and many

notable others. Regardless of the differences found in these, there is a common

denominator found in all. That is, human beings move from the animalistic, passive

stage to the civilized stage in order to materialize their potential in full.

In this domain, governments serve as expedients or facilitators of an anthropological

movement. The mechanism may differ from one type of government to another, but its

principal, common function is to lay and protect the foundations for a prosperous

humanity. In aiming this, a totalitarian regime, an oligarchy, or even a democracy,

resorts to some pattern of hierarchy. It is worth noticing, that no matter what degree of

legitimacy one government enjoys, or another lacks, they both eventually assume an

hierarchical order which in turn inevitably assures a pragmatic i n e q u a l i t y. History

repeatedly proves that beyond theory. Even in Communist Soviet Union where all

classes were abolished, as they were accused of being the source of all social misery,

even then and there, hierarchy rose with the communist-party-class at its top. In the

interstate system as well, although member-states are said to be equally sovereign, they

gradually form a multipolar or bipolar structure where-in the eventual hegemons lobby.

The complication, therefore, stems from the fact that any hierarchy fosters legal,

pragmatic, social inequality among otherwise -legally- equal entities.

Well, it is obviously not the case that people are gifted evenly at birth, or that they

share perfect analogy and symmetry between them, despite Hobbes’ high figure of even

selfishness. Society, kindly wishes to align people at a starting point in order to grant

them the most humble yet violated right which, as first stated by St. Anselm, is that “all

men are equal.